would lower their value too much. As a thrifty merchant, I will
try to sell first what is of least value. One sells the small fry before
the big fish."[27]

I obeyed. I went into the cage, and the door was closed upon me. I
found that I could stand up. An opening through the top permitted me to
breathe without being seen from the outside. Just then a bell sounded.
It was the signal for the sale. On all sides arose the squeaky voices of
the auctioneers announcing the bids of the purchasers of human flesh.
The merchants bragged their slaves in the Roman tongue, and invited the
purchaser into their booths. Several customers entered to inspect the
"horse-dealer's" stock. Without understanding the words that he spoke, I
guessed by the inflections of his voice that he strove to capture them,
while the auctioneer all the while called out the bids. From time to
time a loud tumult arose in the booth, mingled with the sound of the
keepers' lashes, and the curses of the dealer. Evidently they were
scourging some of my companions in slavery who refused to follow the new
master to whom they had been "knocked down." But speedily the clamor
ceased, choked off by the gag. Other times I heard the trampings of a
confused struggle, desperate, though muffled. These struggles also came
to an end under the efforts of the keepers. I was frightened at the
courage displayed by the captives. I no longer understood resistance or
boldness. I was plunged into my cowardly sluggishness. All at once the
door of my cage opened, and the "horse-dealer" cried out in great glee:

"All sold, save you, my pearl, my carbuncle. And by Mercury, to whom I
promise an offering in recognition of my day's profits, I believe I have
found for you a purchaser by private contract."

My master made me step out of my cage; I traversed the booth, in which I
saw not a single slave left. I found myself face to face with a gray
haired man, of a cold, hard countenance. He wore the military dress,
limped very badly, and supported himself on a vine-wood cane, which was
the mark of the centurion rank in the Roman army. The dealer lifted from
my shoulders the woolen covering in which I was wrapped, and left me
stripped to the waist; he then made me get out of my breeches also. My
master, with the air of a man proud of his merchandise, thus exposed my
nakedness to the customer. Several of the curious, assembled outside of
the stall, looked in and contemplated me. I dropped my eye